Carlos Brathwaite’s stunning century came in vain as West Indies fell to an agonising five-run defeat to New Zealand, ending their hopes of reaching the World Cup semi-finals.
SCORECARD | AS IT HAPPENED | TABLE
After Kane Williamson hit a superb 148 as New Zealand posted 291-8 at Old Trafford, West Indies were on course for victory thanks to an entertaining 122-run partnership between Chris Gayle (87) and Shimron Hetmyer (54) before collapsing from 142-2 to 164-7.
However, Brathwaite (102 from 82 balls) marshalled the tail superbly – and having shown incredible composure and intelligence to take the game deep – he unleashed a number of huge hits to get the West Indies to within six of victory only to hole out off Jimmy Neesham from the final ball of the penultimate over.
While the West Indies face an early exit, New Zealand return to the top of the group table and, although not mathematically qualified, can surely start planning for the semi-finals.
A New Zealand win seemed a long way off when Sheldon Cottrell trapped Martin Guptill lbw with the first ball of the match and followed it up by bowling Colin Munro with a perfect yorker later in the over.
Sheldon Cottrell took two wickets in the first over of the match but New Zealand hit back
However, Williamson and Ross Taylor patiently batted out through a tricky spell against the new balls before gradually beginning to accelerate.
After his nerveless match-winning hundred in the win over South Africa, Williamson showed all the same composure in another classy knock, punctuated by elegant boundaries predominantly through the offside.
In a stand of 160, Taylor (69) was in fine touch too before being caught at mid-off, trying to hit Gayle over the top. The wicket did nothing to disturb Williamson who continued on to reach his 13th ODI century from 124 balls.
Cottrell (4-56) returned to remove Tom Latham (12) and end Williamson’s fabulous innings, as well as running out Colin de Grandhomme (16) by throwing down the stumps having fielded the ball off his own bowling for the second time in the tournament.
Kane Williamson made his second hundred in as many matches
But despite losing five wickets, New Zealand still managed to score 92 off the last 10 overs to set the West Indies a challenging target.
Their innings bore striking similarities to New Zealand’s for a time as they lost two early wickets, Boult ousting Shai Hope (1) and Nicholas Pooran (1), before a third-wicket partnership put the pressure back on the bowling side.
A full house at Old Trafford were treated to several lusty blows from Gayle and a number of stylish strokes from Hetymer, not least the six whipped over deep backward square off Lockie Ferguson to bring up his half-century.
Ferguson (3-59) soon had his revenge though, bowling Hetmyer with a slower ball that the left-hander shaped to try and hit out of the ground before realising he had been deceived.
That triggered a collapse of five wickets for 22 runs in just 4.4 overs, crucially including that of Gayle, caught at long on off De Grandhomme, while Trent Boult (4-30) removed Ashley Nurse and Evin Lewis, who came in at No 8 after sustaining a hamstring injury in the first over of the New Zealand innings.
Brathwaite and Kemar Roach halted the slide, putting on 47 for the eighth wicket. Roach fell to Matt Henry but Brathwaite kept going, first with Cottrell and latterly with Oshane Thomas.
The odds still appeared stacked against him but when he smashed 24, including six consecutive sixes, off Henry in the 48th over, West Indies’ hope turned to belief.
Brathwaite reached his hundred, from 80 balls, in the next over, leaving West Indies needing six to win. Neesham had bowled a series of slower balls nervelessly and did so again with the final ball of the over, Brathwaite tried to finish the game with a big hit over long on but he didn’t get all of it and Boult held onto the catch.
As a heartbroken Brathwaite dropped to his knees in despair, New Zealand were left to celebrate a thrilling victory.
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